“I want to make myself more marketable in terms of two occupations you’re always going to have a job in,” she said.

She isn’t alone. Community colleges report record enrollments as people upgrade their skills in preparation for rocky economic times.

Married and pregnant with her third child, the 33-year-old Cowart said it was “a major sacrifice” to quit her teaching job. “But in the long run, I think I’ll be better off,” she said.

Four-year colleges have seen enrollment growth, too, but it has been greatest at community colleges and technical schools, where tuition is generally cheaper and many programs relate directly to finding a job.

Houston Community College reported a 10.5 percent enrollment increase last fall in students enrolled for semester credit hours.

Preliminary spring figures show a 16.9 percent increase over spring 2008, said school spokesman Curtis Doolan.

Lone Star College’s fall enrollment was up about 4.5 percent. For the spring, it’s up about 5 percent, to more than 50,000 students.

More seek technical skills

Technical schools are booming, too. Enrollment at Texas State Technical College campuses — a four-college public system that provides training in fields ranging from nursing to welding and wind energy technology — was up 20 percent last fall.

The system has campuses in small towns across the state but none in the Houston area.

“Historically, when there’s a downturn in the economy, people go back to school,” said Arnold Goldberg, dean of career and technology education at Houston Community College’s Southwest College. “They don’t necessarily go back for academic things. They go back to get a skill to add to what they already have, or to get a totally different skill.”

On Monday, he will start a more specialized program at UTI’s Phoenix campus, which will prepare him to work as a generator technician.

“There will be more money in that,” he said. “I can move higher up with more education.”

Universal Technical Institute and similar schools — many of them for-profit institutions that tailor programs to industry needs — focus on hands-on job skills.

“Cars are not going away in American society,” said Ken Golaszewski, president of the University Technical Institute Houston campus, which offers programs in automotive and diesel technology, as well as collision repair and refinishing.

He wouldn’t release enrollment figures but said enrollment is up as students seek skills for better-paying, more secure jobs.

Choice of direction

Community colleges offer similar programs as well as basic academic classes for students who want to transfer to a four-year school.

Those students account for some of the rising numbers at community colleges.